What's the biggest problem with the Tigers this season? Pat Caputo of the Oakland Press has a theory (note: it's not a good one):

"Cabrera has been the Tigers' biggest problem and concern offensively. It is only masked by his overly-inflated and hallow batting average.
Carlos Guillen has more clutch hits in less than a week than Miggy has had the last three months. And, oh by the way, he is hitting behind Cabrera, who is capable of doing so much more when it matters."

Wow. So much to consider there, not the least of which is the curious choice of "hallow" in there. But that's not the point: RBIs are a pretty useless statistic. Any fan, let alone prominent sports columnist/radio host/baseball purist who uses RBIs to measure a player's worth is not someone I would consider knowledgeable about baseball.

The major fallacy with the whole "driving in runs when it matters" theory is stupid for two main reasons.

First, the ability to drive in runs relies on teammates' ability to get on base. Curtis Granderson's OBP is down 20 points from last season. Placido Polanco's is down 32 points from last year (and 70 points from where it was two years ago). If the guys at the top are not getting on, Cabrera's not going to get as many chances with runners on base, hence fewer RBIs/more solo "non-clutch" home runs.

Well it is true, as Caputo points out, that Cabrera is currently 67th in the majors in RBIs, there are also 44 players ahead of him who have had more at-bats with runners in scoring position.

And second, the whole "clutch" thing is overplayed. Yes, "clutch" hits late in the game are what we remember. They are exciting and make baseball fun to watch. But a three-run home run in the first inning is worth just as many runs as a three-run home run in the ninth. Saying that, "Carlos Guillen has more clutch hits in less than a week than Miggy has had the last three months," is a fine statement. It would be nice if it were backed up with a fact proving it. If only some sort of statistics existed to base arguments on. Oh wait ...

Trust me, much more advanced stats than these exist to measure clutch, but for the sake of allowing me to get some sleep, here are some crude ones:

Cabrera is hitting .267 (.357 OBP) with runners in scoring position (23 hits in 86 ABs) with four home runs and 24 RBIs. Sure, those could certainly be higher, but it's not as if he's been an unproductive lout out there either in those situations.

He's hitting .338 with runners on and two outs. Nearly one third of his at-bats this season have come with no one on base.

Guillen, conversely, is hitting .238 with runners in scoring position. He's hitting .143 with runners on and two outs. And only 17 of his 106 at-bats (granted, small sample size) have come with no runners on base.

To say that Guillen has "delivered more clutch hits" than Cabrera has in three months is beyond stupid. Don't be afraid of statistics (Learn about some that aren't RBIs or batting average too ... trust me the front office guys in the league you are writing about do use them, Mr. Caputo). They help explain what happens on the field.

Cabrera has been by far the most productive Tiger on offense and to point to him as the biggest problem with the offense is either insanely idiotic or just done purposely to rile up readers of his blog post/column/brain dump. Either way, it's just plain wrong.